SMITH AND OSWALD
by WhouffleGurl.02
Summary: When sisters Clara and Oswin Oswald move into the suburbs of london, they're quickly rushed into a world of danger, secrets, and newfound friendship. Nobody is as they seem, and nobody can be trusted. *Souffez, Ten/Rose, Ponds, and other ships are involved.
1. the impossible ones

**A/N this is the first chapter of SMITH AND OSWALD, an AU fanfic. Bear in mind that this will not be updated so regularly, as my focus is on finishing Vengeance and writing my biggest story yet, ONCE UPON A TARDIS-ARTIFACT EDITION. View this chapter as more of sneak peak for at least a week. I should have finished Vengeance by then, and I can focus on this AND my big story. :) Love you all.**

It was the middle of summer when the Oswalds moved from Blackpool to London. They were a family of four, Dave Oswald, his new bride Linda, and his daughters, Clara and Oswin. The girls for once got their own rooms. No more aggressive 'the middle line is here-no, it's not, it's HERE' fights, and it solved their problem of never wanting to see each other.

For sisters that looked so much alike, and were born in the same year, they were incredibly different in so many wayys. Clara was a modest, sincere girl who was loyal to her friends and would do anything to help them. Oswin was more of a rogue, a suggestive and flirtatious woman who had no shame whatsoever. If they had anything in common, it was their love for heels and the color red.

Clara Oswald loved leaves. Especially leaves in the fall. It reminded her of how her parents met, how her mother had saved her father's life. That story was almost like a fairytale, and she treated it as such. Following her love of leaves and fall, she had her room painted with orange, gold, and brown tones on three of her four walls, and had a tree painted on the fourth. She often collected leaves and taped them onto the tree. Clara didn't like to have a lot of clutter in her room, as it distracted her from what really, truly mattered in the world. She had a tall bookcase with all her books on, all of which she regularly read. A wooden desk was in a corner, neatly covered with her studying essentials and schoolwork. Her bed was next to a low window, and she discovered on the first night how she could climb onto the roof and read her books in a quiet, peaceful enviroment.

Oswin Oswald, on the other hand, hated the fall and loved the summer because of school vacation, time she could spend with her friends instead of being stuck at school. She and her friends went off for hours at a time, and ignored all suggestions of a curfew, so Oswin had pretty much nothing in her room but her bed and clothes, also a desk for her schoolwork.

The Oswald family had moved into their new house for one reason only, one that Oswin and Clara both hated but never admitted to each other-their Dad's new wife. Their mother had died, and the two and their father had grieved, and then their dad met Linda.

Bad, evil Linda, who paid no attention to the girls and never made sure they ate or did their schoolwork. She could care less about them. Their Dad never really noticed, since he was at work a lot, from early hours to late at night. On weekends, Clara spent her days on the roof reading, and Oswin was never home, except for four hours on Saturday night to take a nap, then leave again. At the rate things were going, both girls were ignoring their own personal needs to survive. They showered, of course, and changed daily, but they often forgot to eat. They were alarmingly skinny, but Linda didn't care, and Dave wasn't around enough to notice. Their cheekbones and jaws stuck out quite far. At a healthy weight, it would look soft and pretty, but it was almost ugly.

After a month of not caring for themselves and reading and partying and barely seeing each other, it was time for school to begin. Their last year.

Clara woke up that morning and was surprised that she could barely find the strength to do anything until she had her morning tea. Oswin came down into the kitchen and shot her sister a glance, and stared.

"What are you staring at, Oswin?" Clara sighed, feeling grateful as she took a sip of tea and felt it rush down to her stomach. Oswin shook her head.

"Sorry, it's just…you look skinny, Clara. Really skinny."

"So are you," Clara replied, taking a good look at her sister and wincing as she looked down at herself and found that she was too skinny for words. Her clothes were baggy, and if it weren't for the zipper, her boots would fall off easily.

"We've been forgetting to eat." Oswin sighed, picking up her backpack. "We always do it, but at least mom made us eat."

Clara bit her cheek before replying. "Wow, look at that. Oswin Oswald actually does have feelings."

Oswin shook her head. "You're heartless."

"I know"

It took Clara longer than it should've for her to get her school stuff together and put on her makeup. She was walking out of the bathroom and heading to her room when Linda came out of the master bedroom. The woman took one look at Clara and laughed.

"What?" Clara snapped.

"You look stupid." Linda explained before heading downstairs. "You look ugly. Good look making friends, Clara."

Clara gritted her teeth, if she had enough strength, she would've snapped Linda's neck. _Fuck her._

After standing at the metro stop, waiting for the train to show up, she heard footsteps and panting behind her. She turned to find Oswin racing over to her, fury in her eyes and dark blue bruise beginning to form on her cheek.

"Oswin, what's wrong?" Clara gasped, her stomach turning over when she saw her sister's face up close.

"Linda's a nightmare." Oswin hissed, her eyes dark and fury quite apparent. When Oswin was like this, it not only scared Clara because of the intensity, but worried her that Oswin was going to do something quite bad.

"Linda did this?" Clara whispered. Oswin nodded, and the metro arrived. Clara lost her sister in the swirl of people trying to get on, and ended up not finding her again until they were almost to school, and by the time she caught up, the bell rang in the distance. Oswin was swearing as she ran, and Clara just focused all her attention on reaching her class in time.

She did, and ended up being the fifth person to show up. Many others arrived a minute or two after the class started, and one boy showed up halfway into the class.

"Mr. Smith, you are late, _again_. If this keeps up, you're going to have to do makeup work, no matter how much of a genius you are." the teacher snapped at the boy, who nodded. Clara couldn't help but smile at his awkwardness as he ran to his desk and tripped twice. On his own laces. He had floppy hair in the front, and he was tall and gangly. He had a bit of a chin, and he met Clara's eyes as he slipped into his desk across the room. Clara looked away at once, something churning in her stomach.

By lunchtime, Clara had already become friends with two people, Rose Tyler and Melanie Bush. Melanie was a curly-haired ginger that was bright and bubbly, and definitely a romantic. Rose was a short-haired blonde who was a teeny bit stuck up but also generous and always fawning over her boyfriend Ten.

"Ten?" Clara echoed, choking on her water.

"Yeah. The dad was named Eight, and his brother was Seven, and Seven had a son who he named Nine, and Eight then had a son, who he named Ten, and then another son who he named-" and at that exact moment the tall, gangly boy with floppy hair and a chin accidentally tripped over his shoelaces and actually fell down, dropping his…whatever it was.

"…John." Rose finished, pointing at the boy. "That's John. Eight wanted to stop the whole numbers as names thing, which was started by One's father, who was an incredible scientist and inventor, and apparently a good mathematician. He named his kids One, Two, Three, and Four. Well, after their real names, but they just called themselves the numbers. The scientist named them that in the hopes that they would become as great as him. None of them were, apparently, choosing different careers. Seven's an incredibly successful umbrella designer, I know," Rose laughed at Clara's confused face. "Eight was an artist before he became a musician. Nine's becoming a lawyer like Six, and Ten's becoming a historian like Four. And then the kid who broke the numbers as names curse, turned out to be the sciency, genius, mathy guy that One's dad originally wanted." Rose finished, pointing again at John, who had picked himself up by now and was sitting under a tree outside doing something to that device he was holding when he fell.

"Does he have any friends?" Clara asked thoughtfully.

"No." Melanie chipped in. "He's the school freak. He's too much of a genius for the bullies to mess with though. He had friends, Amy and Rory, but they eloped and escaped to new york before their parents found them. They're eighteen now."

"Ten told me that John's going to go live with them as soon as he turns eighteen, which is in about five months. He and Ten are seniors, twins. Fraternal twins, that is. They look nothing alike." Rose added. Clara nodded, registering the information.

"He looks lonely." she remarked.

"He is." Rose replied, her voice soft. "He prefers it that way though, ever since Amy and Rory moved, and River Song died." at Clara's questioning glance, Rose glanced at Melanie and continued. "River Song was an extremely flirtatious woman who flirted heavily with John and was also best friends with him and Amy and Rory. Together, they were the school freaks. When Amy and Rory eloped and ran away, River died a month later in an airplane trip overseas to go see them. John was devastated, and he just reserved himself into quiet corners and involved himself in his mess of science and geniusness."

"Talking about my brother?" a sudden voice made Clara jump, and she looked up to find a rather tall, buff teenager who was wearing a clean, neat pinstripe suit. He was holding a banana. Clara furrowed her brows.

"Yeah," Rose replied, grinning up at him. Clara realized this must be the Ten Rose had been fawning over all morning. She looked away when Ten leaned down and began snogging Rose's face off.

Melanie cleared her throat, and the two broke apart sheepishly. Melanie moved across the table to sit by Clara so Ten could sit with Rose.

"So why are you talking about my brother?" Ten asked.

"Clara's new in the town, and she was wondering about the tall gangly kid who trips over himself and stays in quiet corners with sciency devices." Rose explained, and Clara smiled at the explanation.

"You don't want to mess with me, blondie." an outraged voice sounded across the cafeteria, and Clara groaned when she heard the familiar edge to it. Everyone at the table turned to find the blonde facing off a tall blonde buff teenager with a couple of dark-haired guys behind him who looked happy at a chance to watch their leader completely destroy a girl.

"Don't," Ten warned her when she tensed to run toward her sister. Clara shot him a worried glance. "That's Harold Saxon, the school bully. Except he's more than a bully. He's more of a guy who scares everyone, including the police. If it turns out bad I can go in and save her."

"He isn't scaring the girl though," Melanie pointed out.

"That's my sister, Oswin, that he's scaring," Clara explained, "She's fearless, and practically indestructible."

"Get out of my way!" Oswin snapped.

"You don't want to go against me, pretty. You won't win," Harold sneered.

Oswin made a show of laughing before setting down her lunch and turning to face him, crossing her arms. "You're a wuss who pretends to be tough. I've met lots of you."

Harold looked shocked, but quickly overcame it and handed his lunch to his friend before punching Oswin in the jaw. The whole cafeteria winced, they'd all heard the impact. Clara tried to run to her sister, but Melanie held her back. Oswin stood up straight and touched her fingers to her jaw gently before shooting Harold a sweet smile before lunging and returning a hard punch of her own. The sound was even louder than before, and Harold yelped.

It became an all-out fistfight, and both parties were bloodying up quick. After a minute or so, most of the cafeteria burst into fights too, and Clara followed Ten, Rose, and Melanie out the door. Clara furrowed her brows as they ran over to John, who was sitting under a tree, doing something to his device.

"John," Ten said, making his brother look up. John furrowed his brows. Well, the skin that would hold brows if he had any.

"What are you here for? Is Harold Saxon beating up on somebody again? Have you saved the victim again? How wonderful. Leave me alone." John turned his gaze back to his device, and Ten shared a glance with Rose before kneeling down next to his brother, which caught John's attention.

"Listen. There's an allout fight going on in there, and it's too big for me to break up. We need you to do it."

"What started it?"

"Harold started picking on a girl, but the girl turned out to be an equal fighter, so they're going at eahcother in there. Please, break it up."

John looked at Ten for a long moment, during which Clara allowed her confusion to overwhelm her. What power did this loner, gangly guy have that Ten, the buff guy in a suit didn't?

The gangly kid gave Ten a nod before standing up and straightening his bowtie and pulling on his purple waistcoat. Clara cocked an eyebrow. The Smith brothers had a strange taste in clothing.

The five of them walked into the school, and Clara watched as John darted around fights and jumped up onto the table next to where Harold and Oswin were tumbling around on the floor.

"What do you think you're doing?" John's voice sounded throughout the room, clearly heard above all the ruckus. Clara furrowed her brows, wincing at the harshness of his words. He sounded truly enraged, a darkness there that she could never imagine existed in such a boy.

Everyone stopped and stared at him, except for the original pair of fighters. Harold glared at the floor, avoiding John's gaze at all cost, and Oswin glared up at John defiantly, scramling to her feet and brushing dust off her dress. The gangly boy ignored Oswin, but smoothly stepped down from the table to the bench and them to the floor. He pulled Harold to his feet and leaned in to hiss something into Harold's ear. The way that Harold's eyes widened with panic let her know that it wasn't something nice, whatever it had been. Harold nodded once and walked away, motioning for his followers to follow him. Oswin glared at John.

"Oi, gangly boy. I would've beaten him to a pulp, I didn't need you to step in," Oswin snapped, folding her arms.

"I'm sure you would've, but I don't like fights happening in this school," John replied coldly before furrowing his nonexistent brows and narrowing his eyes at a certain bruise on Oswin's cheek. Oswin noticed and grabbed her lunch before walking away quietly.

Clara pushed through Ten and Rose and shoved John around so he was facing her. "How did you do that?" she wasn't sure why she was angry, but she was. It was filling her from head to toes.

John didn't reply, just started to walk past. Clara gripped his arm and turned him around again. "Hey! I asked you a question."

"Reasons that you wouldn't understand," John ripped his arm from Clara's grip. "And call the police. Your sister might need it."

That was enough.

Clara punched him in the arm, hard, making him wince. She felt the shocked stares of her newfound friends on her back. John narrowed his eyes at her before turning and walking away. She let him go that time, turning around to face her friends.

Melanie had a look of approval on her face, and both Ten and Rose looked absolutely shocked.

"Nobody's ever messed with Harold Saxon and John Smith until the Oswalds came to town," Ten explained, and Clara sighed.

"We tend to be the impossible ones."


	2. saxon and oswald

**People seem to like this, so I decided to update. For those who read Vengeance, I'm losing my interest in that story very quickly, so the last one or two chapters will be up by Saturday at the latest. Love you all.**

**WG2**

A week filled with tension in school passed. Harold Saxon's 'Saxonites', as they called themselves, and Oswin's 'Oswinettes' were battling each other with quiet words and sometimes breaking up into fistfights. Otherwise than the harder fights that Ten broke up, the Smith brothers, Rose, Melanie, and Clara could care less about the silliness.

On the next Tuesday, a boy came up to Clara when she was switching books out at her locker. He was a bit tipsy, and he just stood there grinning at her.

"Sorry, can I help you?" Clara asked, uncomfortable.

"Are you an Oswinette or a Saxonite? You and your friends haven't picked a side yet."

"I'm neither," the brunette sighed. "I'm one of the ones who actually cares about my education, not petty school rivalries."

"They're not petty, lady. Saxon's got himself a plan, see, to become Master of the school and orrule Oswald's terrorizing."

Clara rolled her eyes, closing her locker and walking away. Rose was at the end of the hallway, eyeing the boy.

"Was he bothering you?"

"No. He was just going off something crazy, saying Saxon's planning to become Master of the school and ovveride Oswin's apparent plan of terrorizing." she scoffed. "As if Oswin would ever terrorize."

"Oh no." Rose whispered, and Clara furrowed her brows as the blonde's eyes went wide.

"What's wrong?"

"You said Saxon's planning to overrule Oswin."

"Yeah, I did. So? It's just a petty argument."

"It's not."

"What?"

"In this school, no, in this neighborhood, Gallifrey, things are a lot more serious. It's more than the school freak becoming the world's scariest man in a second and a bully. It's war, Clara."

Clara tried to laugh, but she found that she couldn't, her mouth had gone dry. "You're ridiculous. What war?"

Rose grabbed her hand and Clara flinched at the sudden contact. It had been a long while since she'd held a hand, even longer that the hand was pulling her along with urgency in each tremble.

The two burst into the caretaker's closet, and Clara furrowed her brows when she saw Melanie sitting on a windowless windowsill reading a book. Ten was pacing back and forth, reading old newspapers, and John was sitting in the corner, messing around with his stick device.

"We've got another comment," Rose explained their sudden entrance, which had startled everyone. The blonde closed the door behind them.

"What is it?" John stood up, looking wary. Clara shot him a confused glance. What was the school freak doing here?

A hard poke to her arm brought Clara back to reality, and she blurted out what the kid had said. "Some tipsy guy came up and told me that Saxon's planning some crazy thing about becoming Master of the school and overruling Oswin."

Ten groaned and leaned over, burying his face in his hands. Melanie leaned her head against the wall, and John started to pace now, pushing his hands slowly through his hair.

"This is bad, this is very, very bad." John muttered.

"What are you all going on about?" Clara finally asked, frustrated that she was the only one in the room without a clue. "It's just a fight for school's toughest student. Nobody's actually going to _war_ about something so stupid." she folded her arms self-consciously as everyone stared at her.

John walked toward her, the urgency in his every move making her take a step back before he reached her. He set his hands on Clara's shoulders, and she tried to look away from his eyes, but she couldn't.

"It's not about popularity or school skirmishes. You're right. Those are incredibly stupid things to fight about, but students in this school are unusually stupid and will follow just to be a part of something. But why Saxon is planning this goes far beyond popularity, it's about blood. Family fueds. That's what it's all about." the gangly teenager suddenly seemed to realize that he was looking into her eyes and touching her shoulders. He retracted his hands quickly and retreated back to the other side of the room to pace.

"Family feuds?" Clara echoed, her eyes not having left John. "What do family feuds have to do with Saxon destroying Oswin?"

"She's an Oswald," Ten explained, like it was obvious.

"So?"

"Back in the 1200s, Saxons and Oswalds started a blood feud. It's been forgotten how it started, but it's still going. They fought and fought and fought and thousands have been lost to battle. In the 1500s, the King forced them to share land together, since he was tired of their young men constantly being wounded and dying. The Saxons tried to force the Oswalds off the property, but the Oswalds were ready for them and banned them from the land."

Clara furrowed her brows.

Ten continued. "The Saxons retreated to a dark portion of a forest and became known as the Lords of Dark. The Oswald family remained in the land until World War II. Many Oswalds were jewish at the time, and so the Saxons planted bombs in the land. It was believed the germans had done it, and almost all of the Oswalds were killed. Only a man and a woman off visiting friends survived. When they heard what happened, they fled to America and the Saxons took over the land."

"Its about land?" Clara sighed. "What does it matter? They have their land now. What do you guys have to do with it, anyway?"

Ten shared a glance with John, and Rose went to sit by Melanie.

"Ten mentioned the friends the couple were visiting. Those friends were the Smiths, our ancestors," John explained, "The Smiths and Oswalds had been friends for a long, long time, ever since one of the Oswald's servants, a blacksmith, married one of their daughters. The Smiths sued the Saxons, and ended up winning the land for themselves. They invited the Oswalds back, but by then the Oswalds had found a home and a start in some town in America."

"How do you know that Oswin and I are related to those Oswalds?" Clara asked, shifting from one foot to the other.

John thrust a paper in her hand, and she found herself looking at her family tree. _Fucking hell. _

Honestly, she was shocked. She'd been born and raised in England, her grandparents lived in England, her parents were from England, and she'd had no idea that her grandparent's parents had been from america. Her family's history was closesly intertwined with the Smith brother's family history, and Harold Saxon's family history.

"But why does Harold want to take it out on Oswin now?"

"Because the Saxon family is still feeling the effects of the aftermath and Harold blames it on the Oswalds, not so much the Smiths. He can't. His parents are our servants." John shrugged. "In a manner of speaking. They aren't servants servants as in what you're thinking, but his parents work closely with Six. Six can fire them at a moments notice."

Clara suddenly understood the power John had over Harold, the whole Saxon family's future stood on the Smith's shoulders.

It was horrible. The whole blood feud was. But she wanted to help.

"What do we do?"

Clara was waiting on Oswin's bed when her sister crashed into the house around eleven. Her sister slammed the door after screaming a curse word at Linda, and turned to see Clara sprawled out on her bed.

"FUCK YOU!" Oswin slammed the door, and Clara smiled ruefully at her sister as the younger sister turned around and found her sitting on her bed. "And fuck you, get off my bed."

Clara just scooted over. Oswin sighed, sitting down beside her.

"Did Linda do something to you?" Clara whispered.

Oswin didn't reply, but she rolled up her sleeve, revealing a bruise,

Clara winced. Linda had become increasingly abusive to Oswin for some reason, and her younger sister had made her swear not to tell anyone. Clara had agreed, but she was wishing she hadn't.

"I have something to tell you, Oswin, and you're going to want to listen." Clara explained why she was in her room,

Clara told her everything, and by the end Oswin's eyes were hungering for bloodshed.

"Oswin-" Clara broke off when Oswin stood up and started laughing.

"I believe you, Clara, I really do. I just finally understand, and I know what I'm going to do!"

"What are you going to do?" Clara questioned warily.

"I'm going to kill him."

"You've had too much to drink, Ozzy." Clara said, her voice weak. She'd lost all strength at her sister's words, and winced when she realized she hadn't smelled alcohol on her sister's breath.

Oswin meant her words.

And when Oswin Oswald meant her words, she meant business.

Oswin Oswald wasn't going down without killing Harold Saxon.

Later, Clara was sitting on the roof just outside her window. She had a book in her hands, but she couldn't read it. Her mind wouldn't focus on it. _How can Oswin be so stupid? How did she get so bloodthirsty? It isn't her, not at all._

Knocks on her door surprised her, and she turned around to find Oswin standing in the doorway, leaning against the side. The teenager was wearing leather pants, a red shirt, and red tennis shoe wedges. Her hair was up in some sort of do that Clara couldn't explain, and there was black all around her eyes. She had on her belt, and it had more than one walkie talkie on it. Knives also draped along it, and Clara felt her heart freeze.

"Linda's gone, and Dad is, of course, so that means I'm going to battle." Oswin revealed, turning away and running down the stairs. Clara scrambled to her feet and jumped into her room, wincing at the pain the impact had put upon her legs. She ran downstairs just in time to see Oswin walking out the door talking into a walkie talkie.

"Meet me at the corner, Nina."

Clara was unsure of what to do for a minute, panicking inside, but remembered she'd exchanged numbers with the Smith brothers and Rose and Melanie. She ran upstairs and into her room, practically pouncing on her phone. She clicked the first contact, 10.

His phone rang and rang, but lay unanswered. When it went to messages, Clara bit her lip in frustration and scrolled down to find John. Her finger hovered over the call button. There was still something so very off about the boy, but she had no choice. She hit call and put her phone to her ear. His phone rang once and he answered.

"Hello?" he didn't sound tired, so obviously she hadn't woken him, despite it being two in the morning.

"John? It's Clara. I told Oswin about the feud and she's gone crazy, she's gone out with knives and walkie talkies, she's determined to kill Saxon."

"I'll get Ten and Rose. Do you know where Melanie lives?"

"Yeah, she lives down the street from me."

"We'll be at her house in ten minutes. Be fully dressed and ready to go. And Oswald?"

Clara furrowed her brows. She decided she liked him talking. "Yeah?"

"Bring your wit for once."

She didn't like him talking, actually. She liked him quiet.

Clara paced outside of Melanie's house, dressed in black pants and a blue-green plaid shirt with a black collar and combat boots. Melanie was standing just outside her front door, pretending to ignore the brunette as Clara scratched her arm again and again, vaguely feeling pain when her nails began drawing blood.

Clara was facing Melanie when the redhead pointed behind her. Clara turned and bumped right into John, whose sudden stop made Ten and Clara bump into him.

"For heaven's sake," Ten muttered, grabbing Rose's hand and going around John and Clara to talk to Melanie.

John stepped backwards, lookin sheepish. Clara raised her eyebrows when she saw he had swapped his normal purple waistcoat for a leather jacket. He caught her staring at him and glanced down at himself.

"It's Ten's," he explained.

"It looks good on you," Clara replied.

John was beginning to smile when he obviously caught sight of Clara's bloodied arm. She tried to turn a bit so it was out of sight, but he snatched it and stared at her, concern in his eyes.

"What happened?" he queried.

"I tend to scratch when I'm nervous," Clara ripped her arm from his grip. "I practically tore into my veins when my mum died, and my sister going on a murderous rampage is enough to make be scratch."

John's eyes went cold again at her angry ton, and he walked past her to stand beside Ten.

"We need to split up," Ten pointed out. Melanie nodded.

"We're an odd number." she pointed out.

"Then two of us go to warn Harold, and three of us try to stop Oswin." Ten said. John shook his head.

"Harold's not going to listen to anyone. He probably knows already, and has riled up his own forces. No, we need two to try and stop Oswin before she reaches the Saxonites, and the other three to try and stop Oswin at another point before she reaches, in case the two can't. If that fails, the two need to stop her just before she reaches Saxon, and the three need to warn Saxon not to fight, but to run if we reach that point. We need to focus more on the problem, than the outcome." John pointed out. Ten nodded and started to split them up.

"Melanie, Rose, and I will go together, and you and Clara can be the two," Ten decided. John stared at him angrily. Clara wasn't too thrilled herself, and stood up to protest.

"Ten-"

"You're Oswin's sister, and John's got the darkest, most commanding demeanor out of all of us. If anyone has a chance of turning Oswin back, it's you two." Ten explained. Clara sighed, but didn't try to protest anymore.

At Ten's command to split, John and Clara started running toward the sound of_ OSWINETTES, OSWINETTES, OSWINETTES_ being screamed through the air. Clara sighed as she ran. The name was cringe worthy.

She wasn't paying attention and fell into a pothole, twisting her ankle. Her help made John turn. She scrambled to her feet but before she could do anything, he grabbed her hand and continued running.

"I can run myself!" she yelled. John simply held her hand tighter and practically dragged her along, ignoring her protests.

They got close enough to see Oswin and ran even faster, Clara putting more into it, despite the pain shooting through her foot.

They finally got in front of Oswin and skidded to a halt. Clara almost fell, her legs feeling weak, but John caught her and she leaned against him heavily as she tried to regain her balance.

"The school freak and my sister," Oswin grinned. "What are you two doing?" she cocked her brow, and John pushed Clara off of him. Clara almost fell, but she stayed on her feet.

"Oswin, we can't let you go kill Harold." John began, putting on an authoritative air. Oswin giggled.

"Why not? He's annoying."

"You can't _kill_ him, though. You'll go to prison!" Clara snapped.

"So?" Oswin shrugged. "What have I got to live for? An abusive stepmother? A father I never see? A sister who makes sarcastic comments and makes jokes about me being a junkie? Prison sounds better than reality."

"Listen, I get you're lonely." John began, and Oswin shot him a look. "No, listen to me. I really do get it. My parents could care less about me. They give me money to do whatever I want, but it feels like they're paying me to stay out of their lives. My friends left me, and one of them died. I've suffered more losses than that, and I haven't snapped like this. You have an abusive mother, I saw. Tell the police. You can have the woman sent to jail for this, Oswin. There's no need to kill when you can make your situation better. Maybe then your father will come out of his shell and remember he has daughters."

"You don't understand everything, chin-boy," Oswin snapped. "Killing someone could be my way out of the hell I'm in," she pushed past John. He stumbled back, and he and Clara watched as the Oswinettes and Oswin walked down the road. Clara was a little shocked from John's revelations, Ten and Rose had made the Smith parents sound wonderful.

"I know what you're thinking, Oswald," John muttered. Clara shook her head slowly, looking up at him. He looked down at her, his eyes smoldering in the moonlight.

"We all have secrets, and they protect us. From ourselves and from others," he spoke. Clara nodded. _True._ His fingers touched hers, and she willingly wrapped hers around his. He returned the grasp, and they started running again, running through the shadows, past the Oswinettes and the three others, who were pleading with a subborn Oswin. John and Clara halted at the corner nearest to Saxon's house.

Ten, Rose, and Melanie came running up soon, shaking their heads and running towards Saxon's house.

The shouting group of teenagers came into sight, and it was obvious that Oswin was exasperated when she came to a stop in front of them.

"You two again? Get off my fucking back. You can't stop me." Oswin sighed, starting to push through but John grabbed her wrist and held it tightly, keeping her back. Clara winced just when Oswin did, and she watched as the teenager leaned in and put his lips next to Oswin's ear. His demeanor had gone dark, and the sudden change sent Clara stumbling back.

John's voice went from quiet as a mouse to his normal tone, and everyone could hear him as he spoke now. "You don't want to kill Saxon, Oswin. You'll never be able to live with what you've done, and the past always comes back to haunt your future."

Oswin's face had twisted when he'd talked quietly, and she looked absolutely disgusted. John stood up straight, and Oswin was quiet for a moment before turning to face her Oswinettes.

"Oswinettes! The battle will _not_ take place today! Go home and get some rest, and get ready." she called. The Oswinettes looked annoyed, but they listened to her and went down different roads. Within five minutes, the road was empty except for the three of them.

Oswin stepped in between John and Clara, bringing her sister to her with an arm, side-stepping away from John.

"If you ever go near Clara, I'll kill you," Oswin snarled, wrapping her arm around Clara's waist and walking away. Clara twisted her head around, glancing at John, who looked just as gangly and shy as when she'd first seen him. His floppy hair waved in the wind, and as they walked further away, he became a sillhouette.

**Yeah so obviously John's got a secret and Souffez is beginning.**

**Don't expect their ride to be an easy one, though.**

**;)**

WG2


End file.
